CrossOver Support - Community Forums

Sup guys,

I have three subjects I'd like to throw into this discussion. It can be considered as feedback from a normal user and a loyal customer. It took me a lot of time to test and try things out. Feedback is appreciated.

1. Crossover 13 can only be installed via .bin on Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS 32-bit and 64-bit. The .deb version of Crossover 13 only supports Ubuntu 12.10 and higher. This isn't the most user-friendly way, at least not for someone like me (the average Joe). There is no alternative neither via .deb file or the Ubuntu Software Center. The newest version of Crossover offered via the Software Center is 12.5.0. I'd like to point out that not only does the LTS version of Ubuntu focus on business/enterprise users, but it's also the recommended version for every other 'normal' consumer. This seems to be the reason why Valve focuses on LTS and why Dell, HP and Lenovo computers come preinstalled with the newest LTS version of Ubuntu. The non-LTS version of Ubuntu seems to target users willing to work on or contribute to Ubuntu in any form. At least that's how Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical see it.

See here for more information:

• Mark S. on LTS vs. non-LTS Ubuntu.
• Dell and Ubuntu LTS.
• HP and Ubuntu LTS.
• Alienware and Ubuntu LTS.

Questions

• Will Codeweavers release an updated Crossover 13 .deb file for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32-bit and 64-bit users?

• Even better: Will Codeweavers update their 'old' version of Crossover on the Ubuntu Software Center for Ubuntu 12.04 - 13.10 32-bit and 64-bit? This would be the most user-friendly approach.

• Does Codeweavers maintain and support Crossover via the Software Center, or is this something that Canonical has to take care of?

2. On 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 - 13.10: After a fresh installation of Crossover via the .deb or the Ubuntu Software Center (12.04 - 13.04), Crossover reports something about missing dependencies for almost every supported application. Link: http://s14.directupload.net/images/131119/ssofvljd.png

Question

• Will Codeweavers update/fix recent dependency issues (as mentioned above)? It would be nice to have Crossover pull everything needed automatically via .deb or via a simple Software Center installation. This kind of approach/solution is the most user-friendly way and saves you a lot of headaches afterwards.

3. On Ubuntu 13.10 32-bit and 64-bit, Crossover installation hangs in an endless loop when trying to install it via the Ubuntu Software Center. Restarting the computer or force quitting the installation seems to be the only way to 'stop' it. But this results in corrupted data, which prevents an attempt at reinstalling the software. Link: http://askubuntu.com/questions/377466/ubuntu-13-10-32-bit-crossover-error-installation

The newest version of Crossover offered via the 13.10 Software Center is 12.5.0, which is outdated as well.

Question

• Will Codeweavers fix the endless loop issue on Ubuntu 13.10 32-bit and 64-bit?

Thanks and congrats on the massive performance and stability improvements of Crossover 13!

Blaming Codeweavers for choices made within Debian, shows you might not know what is happening. Most of what you have mentionned is about the transition to a "multiarch" architecture, and like most transitions, things are funky. That includes missing dependencies, lack of support for older architecture, etc. That being said, it is Debian, and therefore Ubuntu, which brought about the "break", although one can easily argue it is for the better in the long run.

There is no need to explain what the LTS is all about or quote articles. Anybody slightly aware of the Linux scene knows what that is about. Still, choices made in Debian forced choices to be made for Crossover, considering the limited resources Codeweavers have at the size they are. Besides, it's not like they don't have an alternative.

As for the bin file, it's not that hard either. The stupidest method is simply to change the extention from .bin to .sh, then just double-click. Be aware that you are circumventing the effect of downloading a file with no execution privileges, and that is a security risk (not that the files from Crossover are a problem at all, but other files might be). The second stupidest method is to associate the .bin extention to the sh tool, but that is no more brilliant the the original idea, in fact it might be worse for security.

The real method, at least the safest, is to open a terminal in the folder where the bin file is and:

sudo -s
chmod +x install-crossover-13.0.0.bin
./install-crossover-13.0.0.bin

That will install crossover in /opt, as the deb would have. Without root privileges, the install will go right in your home.

As for your infinit loop, I'm not really sure that is a general problem. I installed 13.04 64bit in a VM last saturday to test some stuff, and the problem didn't come up when I installed Crossover, but I downloaded the deb. So from my standpoint, this doesn't appear to be a general problem, but something that might be specific to the software center. Still, I'm sure Codeweavers will look into this.

@JP Simard:

I think you misunderstood some of things I wrote. Before I explain, allow me to thank you for the detailed explanation and information you provided me with via your post. At least now I actually understand the situation a bit better, even though I'd still like to know if I can count on an update or not (at least on 12.04). Actually, that's what I was asking and providing feedback about...

• ...I didn't 'blame' anyone. Like stated in my previous post, I made this thread to provide some 'basic' feedback on the issues I have been having. I even wrote that in the second sentance of my first post, just in case someone gets the wrong picture.

• Obviously, I am aware of the Linux scene, I wouldn't be here if I wasn't, and I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years, and I found out about the LTS vs. normal Ubuntu topic just a few weeks ago. Neither my family nor friends really knew about it, since there is no direct explanation on the Ubuntu site when you get to the 'download' section. There is no "recommended for normal users", "recommended for testing purposes" advice to be seen. Most of the time you actually see Canonical advertising their newest release on Ubuntu.com. That can be a bit confusing - at least to someone coming from the Windows world. You just take a look at what is the newest and greatest. In fact, taking a look at Askubuntu.com and the official Ubuntu forums, even long-term users tend to disagree on the topic, not know about it, and/or suggest otherwise. Anyway, the reason I quoted all that stuff was to show how important the LTS release is to a normal user, like myself, thus trying to make a point on 'why' I'd like to have an easy and direct way to install Crossover 13 on that plattform (via the Software Center).

• You are right though, I am what you would probably consider a 'normal' user. I am not the geeky, tech-savy kind of person that follows this kind of stuff on regular basis. Going by that, installing a .bin file, something that I haven't even needed to think about before, truly is a lot more difficult than just double-clicking a .deb and letting it install automatically, including all of the needed dependencies. Heck, I wasn't even aware of the command you just posted for me. As a normal user, I'd prefer just going to the Software Center to download, install and update my software with the click of one or two buttons. Before you shed some light on the situation, I really didn't know who 'broke' what and why. As a satisfied user and customer, I was just wondering why the software I was using without issues before, suddenly started giving me some issues. So I decided to post my results on here, thinking it might help.

• Like mentioned in #3 'issue' of my post, the infinit loop issue happens on Ubuntu 13.10 32- and 64-bit, not on Ubuntu 13.04. I tested it on two 13.10 laptops - both of them "froze" during the installation of Crossover via the Software Center. Crossover was working fine on 13.04, just like you successfully verified via VM. In addition to this thread, I actually contacted Codeweavers via ticket about this. So far contact with their support staff has been a good experience.

Anyway, I hope this explains some of my previous post.

Peace.

My apologies, I came off wrong in my wording, on top of misreading you. I'll grab this opportiny to blame that on the language barrier, being French speaking, knowing full well this might sound disingenuous considering my written form. 😈

In any case, what I meant is that Codeweavers, I'm sure, is well aware of the virtue of an LTS for the "normal user" (making me an "abnormal user", since I use Arch 😋 ). No one in the Codeweaver staff needs reminding how important the LTS is. In the end, there is no doubt in my mind the Codeweavers didn't make the decision lightly and are well aware of the effects of their decision.

That being said, there is a trick you could use for the time being. You could download an old deb of Crossover just to grab the dependencies, then uninstall that keeping the dependencies. The other is to install Wine, which will install many if not all the depedencies that Crossover would need. Granted, that is not as "automatic" as a user like you could want, but at least you won't have to make a list or anything like that.

Lastly, I would like to say that even when I was using windows, I was delving as deep as I could. This does, on occasion, put me in an odd disposition toward less "interested" users. It shouldn't happen, but it does, so again, my appologies.

PS: It was 13.10 that I tried, I typed .04 by mistake...

Well and then there are us OpenSuse users. I just put up a post of all the missing lib's when installing cx 13 in opensuse13.1 big list and on top of that many simlinks needed to be created before cx would recognize them. It is a daunting task for the codeweaver's crew to keep up with all the OS's. I do think they put a lot of thought in to there work.

I admit that I didnt read it all.

But I think I could download some distro to virtual machine, kubuntu 64 13.10. Force install it from deb (doesnt install purely). And check what files are needed to install after force install.

So we could have some list...